News
Milford Haven: Plaid Leader speaking at public meeting this week
PLAID CYMRU Leader Leanne Wood is visiting Milford Haven to set out a radical agenda for ensuring that ‘decisions affecting Wales are made in Wales’ through a programme of democratisation and empowerment.
Leanne will be speaking at a public meeting in the Pill Social Centre, Cellar Hill, Milford Haven, on Thursday (Jun 21) at 6.30pm, to outline these ideas and hear from people in the area about their aspirations for Pembrokeshire and Wales.
The wide-ranging pamphlet, with ideas ranging from education to enterprise to democratic reform, emphasises giving people a greater say over the matters that affect them and their communities. Leanne Wood says it’s vital to re-engage individuals with politics and challenge the despair that has dominated in light of a decade of cuts and the vote to leave the EU.
The Plaid Cymru Leader states that the Tories and Labour present a false choice between top-down, increasingly regressive right-wing politics, and the latter’s London-centric agenda with its stubborn refusal to yield power from Westminster or Cardiff.
The public meeting will be the local launch of the pamphlet as Leanne Wood embarks on a tour of Wales hosting public meetings to discuss the ideas contained in the pamphlet and engage with people on a grassroots level.
Leanne Wood said: “I want people throughout Wales to consider how we can lift up our country by taking responsibility for our own affairs and our own lives, and on how we can start a debate in Wales about ending our dependence on others.
“I have analysed the challenges facing our country: challenges from within the UK, challenges that following the Brexit vote, not least the risk an extreme Tory Brexit poses to Welsh jobs and services, as well as the challenges we face from global developments.
“Decisions about Wales should be made in Wales. Self-determination means that we should choose which powers we want to share with other countries or with Europe.
Yet neither an intensification of neoliberalism, nor the resurrection of British state socialism will provide the solutions that are needed to solve our economic challenges and turn Wales around.
“Both visions offered by the two largest Westminster parties marginalise our specific needs as a nation.
“We need to get out there and show people how the core weakness of Labour’s paternalistic, centralising socialism is its democratic deficit. It will neither enable people to own their own resources nor run them democratically. It won’t empower people because it doesn’t trust people.
“We should look at locating new institutions outside where they are concentrated already, as Plaid Cymru has advocated for the new transport authority, football museum, national development bank, and other bodies. We want to see more powers devolved within Wales to ensure places like Pembrokeshire see the benefits.
“It means ensuring that the poorest areas of the country can benefit from a sustainable regional approach to economic development.
“This is about levelling up and treating geographic inequality as a problem to be tackled in the same way as other inequalities.
“For my party, it means we would legislate to ensure that legal safeguards were in place to fairly share public investment across the country, leaving no community behind.
“I also want to see a minimum set of social rights for all, such as to life-long learning, a decent home, a high standard of health care and a clean environment.
“Other principles here include using public money for public good; maximising people’s participation in democracy; co-operating as individuals instead of competing with one another; and learning from our history to look forward with hope, instead of backwards with nostalgia.
“People want a radical political voice that represents all parts of Wales and that’s what Plaid Cymru can provide.”
This comes after Ms Wood saying that she will stand down as leader of Plaid Cymru after the 2021 election if she is not First Minister.
Ms Wood has not been challenged as leader since her election in 2012, but it is understood that there is disquiet among Plaid AMs over her performance.
Crime
Woman stabbed partner in Haverfordwest before handing herself in
A WOMAN who stabbed her partner during a drug-fuelled episode walked straight into Haverfordwest Police Station and told officers what she had done, Swansea Crown Court has heard.
Amy Woolston, 22, of Dartmouth Street in Milford Haven, arrived at the station at around 8:00pm on June 13 and said: “I stabbed my ex-partner earlier… he’s alright and he let me walk off,” prosecutor Tom Scapens told the court.
The pair had taken acid together earlier in the day, and Woolston claimed she believed she could feel “stab marks in her back” before the incident.
Police find victim with four wounds
Officers went to the victim’s home to check on him. He was not there at first, but returned shortly afterwards. He appeared sober and told police: “Just a couple of things,” before pointing to injuries on his back.
He had three stab or puncture wounds to his back and another to his bicep.
The victim said that when he arrived home from the shop, Woolston was acting “a bit shifty”. After asking if she was alright, she grabbed something from the windowsill — described as either a knife or a shard of glass — and stabbed him.
He told officers he had “had worse from her before”, did not support a prosecution, and refused to go to hospital.
Defendant has long history of violence
Woolston pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding. The court heard she had amassed 20 previous convictions from 10 court appearances, including assaults, battery, and offences against emergency workers.
Defending, Dyfed Thomas said Woolston had longstanding mental health problems and had been off medication prescribed for paranoid schizophrenia at the time.
“She’s had a difficult upbringing,” he added, saying she was remorseful and now compliant with treatment.
Woolston was jailed for 12 months, but the court heard she has already served the equivalent time on remand and will be released imminently on a 12-month licence.
News
BBC apologises to Herald’s editor for inaccurate story
THE BBC has issued a formal apology and amended a six-year-old article written by BBC Wales Business Correspondent Huw Thomas after its Executive Complaints Unit ruled that the original headline and wording gave an “incorrect impression” that Herald editor Tom Sinclair was personally liable for tens of thousands of pounds in debt.

The 2019 report, originally headlined “Herald newspaper editor Tom Sinclair has £70,000 debts”, has now been changed.
The ECU found: “The wording of the article and its headline could have led readers to form the incorrect impression that the debt was Mr Sinclair’s personal responsibility… In that respect the article failed to meet the BBC’s standards of due accuracy.”
Mr Sinclair said: “I’m grateful to the ECU for the apology and for correcting the personal-liability impression that caused real harm for six years. However, the article still links the debts to ‘the group which publishes The Herald’ when in fact they related to printing companies that were dissolved two years before the Herald was founded in 2013. I have asked the BBC to add that final clarification so the record is completely accurate.”
A formal apology and correction of this kind from the BBC is extremely rare, especially for a story more than six years old.
Business
First wind turbine components arrive as LNG project moves ahead
THE FIRST ship carrying major components for Dragon LNG’s new onshore wind turbines
docked at Pembroke Port yesterday afternoon last week, marking the start of physical
deliveries for the multi-million-pound renewable energy project.
The Maltese-registered general cargo vessel Peak Bergen berthed at Pembroke Dock on
shortly after 4pm on Wednesday 26th November, bringing tower sections and other heavy
components for the three Enercon turbines that will eventually stand on land adjacent to the
existing gas terminal at Waterston.
A second vessel, the Irish-flagged Wilson Flex IV, has arrived in Pembroke Port today is
due to arrive in the early hours of this morning (Thursday) carrying the giant rotor blades.
The deliveries follow a successful trial convoy on 25 November, when police-escorted low-
loader trailers carried dummy loads along the planned route from the port through
Pembroke, past Waterloo roundabout and up the A477 to the Dragon LNG site.
Dragon LNG’s Community and Social Performance Officer, Lynette Round, confirmed the
latest movements in emails to the Herald.
“The Peak Bergen arrived last week yesterday with the first components,” she said. “We are
expecting another delivery tomorrow (Thursday) onboard the Wilson Flex IV. This will be
blades and is currently showing an ETA of approximately 03:30.”
The £14.3 million project, approved by Welsh Ministers last year, will see three turbines with
a combined capacity of up to 13.5 MW erected on company-owned land next to the LNG
terminal. Once operational – expected in late 2026 – they will generate enough electricity to
power the entire site, significantly reducing its carbon footprint.
Port of Milford Haven shipping movements showed the Peak Bergen approaching the Haven
throughout Wednesday morning before finally tying up at the cargo berth in Pembroke Dock.
Cranes began unloading operations yesterday evening.
The Weather conditions are currently were favourable for this morning’s the arrival of
the Wilson Flex IV, which was tracking south of the Smalls at midnight.
The abnormal-load convoys carrying the components from the port to Waterston are
expected to begin early next year, subject to final police and highway approvals.
A community benefit fund linked to the project will provide training opportunities and energy-
bill support for residents in nearby Waterston, Llanstadwell and Neyland.
Further updates will be issued by Dragon LNG as the Port of Milford Haven as the delivery
programme continues.
Photo: Martin Cavaney
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